Warning: This blog is under the influence of the Holy Spirit. (That's actually a blessing of course. I'm just trying to be fair to the skeptics.)

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Getting Realistic About Pessimism

The other day I ran across this quote by Mark Twain that tickled
my comfort bone:

“At fifty a man can be an ass without being an optimist but
not an optimist without being as ass.”

This got me thinking about my naturally optimistic core
where I walk out some very pessimistic considerations in action and deed.

Is the light at the end of the tunnel an oncoming train? I
often think it is. That is, until I’m confident I can see daylight and not hear
the distinctive hum of a diesel electric motor or hear the high pitch of steel
wheels grinding on track. I need proof in the darkness of uncertainty. Do you need proof or do you walk the tracks with all the
confidence of a an optimistic tunnel traveler?

Have you actually looked at a tunnel from the inside?

I think this way about tunnels. I do because trains run in them.
There is little or no room to dodge tons of locomotive in such a confined space.
Unless the train is a creeper, you’ll get blown under, a tragic victim of
Bernoulli’s principle.

Does this mean I am being pessimistic to believe that only
fast trains travel in tunnels?

Whoever designs tunnels must be optimistic anyway.They must be. Engineers build tunnels and
they are pretty smart people (for the most part.)I find it hard to believe they never considered
that I might one day want to take a stroll in a train tunnel. So, they must
believe this:If you do walk a tunneled
track, no way will a train enter during your perambulation. Right? That’s
optimism right?

On the other hand, I see a glass of water -or pick your
favorite poison- as half full!

The proof is right before your eyes. The only time I see it as half empty is when I
loved the first half so much and learned we just ran out.A good bourbon can have that effect. The same
can be said of a glass of ice cold lemonade at a summer festival.

The pessimist might say life is full of disappointments. Yep,
it is. Yet, dealing with those disappointments requires optimism. That’s a
reality. Uh oh. Is that the foundation of the realist?

And where does this so-called realist fit in? Who is he/she?
Is this the person who can’t seem to decide if the glass is half full or empty?
Does he drink half and freeze the other half for a rainy day? Does he even care?

Does this guy not walk in tunnels?

No. That can’t be right. That sounds pessimistic.

Who will live longer, the optimist or the pessimist? Pessimistically
speaking, one would think the optimist would see the light of the golden years
with greater verve and duration.

Of course, the pessimist would not only believe that, he
would also expect to be wrong about his prediction eh? That’s pessimism right?

And, he would be right there too. Or, wrong as the case may be.

A recent study from Germany has suggested that pessimistic
people live longer. Yeah. They actually did a study on this. 40,000 Germans were
studied between the ages of 18-96 from 1993 to 2003.

The pessimists lived longer. Go figure. It’s theorized this
has something to do with the optimists being disappointed with their sunny expectations
when they discovered the light they saw was actually riding on tracks. The pessimists
were better prepared for the terror and managed to side step the steel
juggernaut with greater effectiveness. (Or, maybe they didn’t walk in train
tunnels thinking they would get bounced.)

Of course, one could question this, “Yeah but those are
Germans.” But, Germans are historically optimistic. So, should we now be pessimistic
about German optimism?

Should we be pessimistic about optimism in general? Is it
overrated?

Worse yet, maybe this tells us we should be optimistic about
pessimism. Is it underrated?

The optimist, in my opinion, is ebullient out of sheer
terror of what might happen in the dark. The thought of facing it is just too
much.Smile. Lock down. Don’t
worry.“Everything is cool. OHHHHH
SHIIIIII……” Thump!

The pessimist, in my opinion, sees things from the darker perspective,
drawn from a blind kind of fatalism. “It
will all end terribly and I will most likely be wrong about that too.”Paradoxically low expectations at least gives
him a 50/50 chance of making it out alive.

The realist, on the other hand, is not necessarily resigned
to a kind of fatalism. He’s resigned to the fact he is in a tunnel most of the
time. He still sees the light. He is just looking for proof, wary of the bogus,
the false light that might turn him into a meatball.

The realist also knows the virtues and joys (well mostly
joys) of drinking fine beverages. He knows the glass will run dry eventually. He’s
pessimistic in that way. He’s just optimistic about growing lemon trees.

As
wonky as this all sounds, maybe we should get optimistic about realism or at
least we ought to consider being realistic about pessimism.

How Much Do You Need To Know Anyway?

that we shall be better, braver, and more active men if we believe it right to look for what we don’t know than if we believe there is no point in looking,

because what we don’t know, we can never discover.”

-Plato The Meno Dialog

Gimme a Little Love

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.